Food ministry officials Thursday said tough measures, including imports, would be taken to check hoarding of wheat and assured that India has sufficient stocks to meet domestic requirements.

"The wheat stock in the central pool is sufficient to meet the requirement of the public distribution system (PDS), welfare schemes of other ministries and the employment generation scheme of the rural development ministry," S.K. Tuteja, secretary, department of food and public distribution, said here.

"We can fulfil the country's requirements but we will not hesitate to import if need be," said Tuteja, attributing the spiralling domestic cost of wheat to hoarding.

So far, the government has procured 14.77 million tonnes of wheat in addition to the buffer stock requirement of two million tonnes.

The total procurement of wheat during 2004-05 was 16.79 million tonnes.

Though there is no target fixed for procurement, the purchase of wheat from the markets by government agencies would continue till June 30, the official said.

In the case of rice, the central pool has a stock of over 22.4 million tonnes as on June 8 as against 22.8 million tonnes during the same period in 2003-04.

"There will be no change in the scale of issue and price of wheat sold to families below poverty line (BPL) in the public distribution system," Tuteja assured.

The stock available in the central pool is sufficient to meet the requirements of PDS and the demands of the open market, he maintained.

As on July 1, the wheat stock in the central pool will be about 18.8 million tonnes against a buffer norm of 17.1 million tonnes, according to estimates.

"The government decided not to export wheat from the central pool. From Oct 1 last year, there has been no wheat export from India," Tuteja said.

Tuteja also mentioned that the availability of sugar in the country is comfortable with about 1.8 million tonnes of raw sugar having been imported so far.